In the past, we've always hosted an afternoon tea/dessert
type event. Parents who have helped out are invited, our cafetorium
is decorated, teacher's announce individual parent names
and a small favor is given (notepad, pen, etc.)

I'm wondering what other schools do to honor parents at the
end of the year. Do you have an event for them as we do?
What does it look like? Thanks!!!

Last year we did a luncheon, but do not have a person available to man it during all three lunches this year. We are considering a breakfast as this could include all parents, even those with 1/2 day kindergartners. We usually have a special drawing for some prizes. Each parent does not get something as this would take forever. I have 15 volunteers just in my classroom alone. Each grade level is in charge of giving a small favor to their parents near the end of the year. We usually give a nice key chain about volunteers.

In the last month of school we plan a strawberry social for all the parents in our school. We invite every parent and also grandparents who have helped as well. We invite everyone whether they directly helped or not in the school. We don't want to leave anyone out that might get missed and besides we figure that every parent helps their own child in some way. We have about 220 kids in our school and typically get about 60-70 people who attend our tea.

We send home invitations - one per family. These are hand addressed and we supply an RSVP slip that can be returned to let us know if they plan to attend. Our grade six teacher organizes grade six students who babysit preschoolers and younger primary students while the tea is on.

We decorate our school library with a large banner that says something like, "Thank you parents for all your support!" The letters are stamped by kids with strawberry stamps (that we made ourselves out of zanfoam) and then later leaves are crayoned on. The letters are outlined in black, cut out and glued down on to a large dark green banner. In addition, each class supplies further decorations usually around a strawberry theme. Around the door we have large paper-stuffed strawberries on a 3-D paper vine. The kids have also made strawberry placemats which we have laminated for use for several years in a row.

The staff brings china tea cups, tea pots, creamers and sugars from home and also small tablecloths. We rent fruit bowls and spoons. We serve tea, coffee, and strawberry shortcake. We purchase a large cake and then we buy strawberries and whip cream in food processors. At lunch time we all slice strawberries for the after school event. The staff serve the parents who sit in groups of 6-8. They seem to really enjoy the party. It usually takes about an hour and then there's an extra hour of clean up afterwards. We don't give a gift. Teachers sometimes give their own gifts at the very end of the year to a parent or two who might have really helped far beyond the others.

Our principal usually makes a short speech after about a half an hour of tea drinking, listing the many many ways parents help in our school. Then we usually show a DVD of photos of some school events. The whole thing usually lasts about an hour.

We do a school wide breakfast. We are a large school (600) and hold this is the cafeteria. The teachers sign up to bring fruit, bagels, muffins, donuts, juice, coffee etc. A few teachers volunteer to make decorations for the walls and tables. Their kids make something for this. We put out tablecloths or confetti on the tables. Then each grade level comes in and does something to say thank you to all the volunteers seated and enjoying breakfast. This is usually a poem, song, or something like that. A few minutes per grade level- we have a schedule and one grade level waits in the hallway while one is performing. We do this first thing in the morning and it usually lasts about an hour total. We invite everyone and have some small gift (notepad, pen) that they pick up as they leave.